The present embodiments relate to a carriage that is movably attached to a rail.
Attaching technical equipment to the ceiling of a room enables the available space to be used economically in many situations. For more flexible use of devices suspended from the ceiling use is frequently made of longitudinal ceiling rails with transverse carriages, which permit transverse displacement or transverse travel of the technical device attached to the carriage. Technical devices suspended from the ceiling are found not only in factories but also in hospitals, where medical diagnostic devices are attached in this way. DE 19838594 C1 describes an x-ray ceiling stand with a transverse carriage suspended from a longitudinal ceiling rail.
Movable technical devices suspended from the ceiling may be supplied with power using cables. EP 0819226 B1 describes energy chains used to guide the cable.
Supplying power to a technical device suspended from the ceiling using a cable connection, for example, a cable guided in an energy chain, has the drawback that the cable connection hangs down between the attachment points. Cable connections that hang down restrict the space and increase the risk that people will knock against cables that are hanging down. The use of energy chains improves the situation because the cables are guided in a controlled manner. However, the self-supporting area of the energy chain can sag considerably. To reduce this, the transverse carriage is generally fitted with a brace or a support bracket, which carries part of the energy chain. The longer this support bracket is, the more the sag in the energy chain is reduced. However, a drawback of this is that extending the brace restricts or reduces the area available for the carriage to travel. The space requirement for the ceiling stand is thus increased.
DE 102005022343 A1 and DE 102005027672 A1 describe a power rail above a longitudinal rail for a transverse carriage. The transverse carriage is supplied via the power line by a sliding contact. This solution is not easy to implement technically for high voltages and entails the difficulty of how the power rail can or should be suitably protected.